Vehicles such as cars and trucks need routine maintenance. Automotive service facilities periodically perform a number of tasks on vehicles in order to keep them in proper working condition. Some of these tasks include tire rotation, fluid changes (e.g., oil, automatic transmission fluid, coolant, etc.), and fluid refills (e.g., windshield wiper fluid, etc.) Conventionally, technicians performed these tasks in a garage or service bay.
Some tasks (e.g., oil filter changes, etc.) require the garage or service bay to include an elevation device, such as a hydraulic lift, to lift the vehicle above the ground. Some of these same tasks may, in the alternative, require the garage or service bay to include a pit or basement so that the technician may access the underside of the vehicle while the vehicle is on the ground. For example, a technician may perform an oil change by standing in a pit or basement located under the vehicle to access the vehicle's underside.
In the conventional garage or service bay, technicians perform maintenance tasks one at a time until completing all of the desired tasks. Performing all of the required tasks simultaneously is not realistic because multiple technicians would have to work on the vehicle at the same time, getting in each other's way. Aside from this, some of tasks may require the use of a lift and some may not, making coordination difficult. Also, conventional garages or service bays need equipped with a large number of different equipment, making the space cluttered. The large number of different equipment may be moved in and out of the space but this may be tedious and time-consuming.
But customers demand fast service and convenience. Service facilities also prefer fast service because it allows for a larger volume of vehicles served. For a service facility with only a limited number of service bays, extended service time results in lost business and customer dissatisfaction because a vehicle cannot be brought in to the facility for service unless there is an open service bay in which to service the vehicle.
Increasingly, customers also demand transparency in service. Conventional service facilities had waiting rooms for customers to wait or, worse yet, required customers to leave the facility while maintenance was being performed. Customers often questioned, with little recourse, whether the maintenance work was actually performed. Often, when an unexpected costly repair was necessary, the customer was surprised and had to take the word of the technician as to whether the work was actually needed.
Another conventional problem is the variety of parts and specifications of the various vehicle brands, models, etc. Beyond the complexity of individual parts of a vehicle, the many options that are available in body style, engine size and type, transmission, and accessory equipment further complicate the specifications. In some cases manufacturers change specifications after manufacturing because of design improvements, safety recalls, etc. Therefore, in addition to the time spent actually servicing the vehicle, maintenance facilities must spend time obtaining, locating and retrieving the relevant parts and specifications for the specific vehicle they happen to be servicing at the time.
Therefore, there is a need for an automotive service facility that increases speed, transparency, and accuracy in vehicle service.